A.J. Cronin's frustration and anger with the medical profession had translated to the screen so well with "The Citadel," and while some of those themes reverberate in this treatment of another novel of his, it's hardly its cinematic equal. George Stevens, better known at this point for comedies and musicals, heaps nobility upon nobility in this cloying tale of a devoted British nurse (Carole Lombard, sans British accent) and her far less devoted nurse sister (Anne Shirley) and their frustrations and challenges in several hospitals, including hypocritical rich patrons, lack of funds, unsympathetic bureaucracy, and smallpox. It opens with the death of an innocent child, no less, and Stevens thrusts the camera right up in the lad's face, the better to make us weep. It continues with similar emotional manipulation--adorable innocent kids suffering, dark hospital corridors, sneering colleagues. Carole's good--when wasn't she?--and Anne's pretty good, too, and Peter Cushing, as her unfortunate spouse, is quite good. A romance between Carole and impossibly noble doctor Brian Aherne is so stifled as to barely be there, and the slurpy music keeps telling us how to feel every damn minute. Some very nice cinematography, and I'll watch Carole in anything, but as an indictment of medical hypocrisies, it's slow and obvious.
Review of Vigil in the Night
